Redalyc.Consumer Value and Modes of Media Reception: Audience Response to Ryan, a Computer-Animated Psycho-Realist Documentary A
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Palabra Clave ISSN: 0122-8285 [email protected] Universidad de La Sabana Colombia Davis, Charles H.; Vladica, Florin Consumer Value and Modes of Media Reception: Audience Response to Ryan, a Computer-animated Psycho-realist Documentary and its Own Documentation in Alter Egos Palabra Clave, vol. 13, núm. 1, junio, 2010, pp. 13-29 Universidad de La Sabana Bogotá, Colombia Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=64916293002 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative l ISSN 0122-8285 l Volumen 13 Número 1 l Junio de 2010 Consumer Value and Modes of Media Reception: Audience Response to Ryan, a Computer-animated Psycho-realist Documentary and its Own Documentation in Alter Egos Valor del consumidor y modos de recepción de medios: respuestas de la audiencia Ryan, un pequeño documental psicorrealista animado por computador, y su propia documentación en Alter Egos Charles H. Davis, Ph.D.1 Florin Vladica, Ph.D.2 Abstract Resumen Consumer value and value creation are fundamental con- En mercadeo, administración y literatura sobre organiza- cepts in marketing, management and in literature on orga- ciones, los conceptos de valor del consumidor y creación de nizations, but are almost never considered in the context of valor son fundamentales, aunque casi nunca se examinan screen-based “experience” products. In this paper, the au- en el contexto de los bienes de experiencia en pantalla. En thors depart from the prevailing approaches to audience or este artículo, nos apartamos de enfoques imperantes sobre reception studies by investigating the experience value the audiencia o estudios de recepción y estudiamos el valor ex- consumption of a screen-based product has for the specta- perimental que produce en el espectador el consumo de un tor. Using the Q-methodology and Holbrook’s consumer producto visto en pantalla. Aplicando la metodología Q y value framework (1999), they empirically identify audience el esquema de Holbrook sobre valor del consumidor (1999), segments based on television viewers’ subjective experi- identificamos segmentos de audiencia empíricamente, par- ence with an innovative film product: the award-winning, tiendo de la experiencia subjetiva de los telespectadores de computer-animated short documentary Ryan. The film uses un producto filmado de manera innovadora: Ryan, breve y creative state-of-the art animation to tell a compelling story laureado documental animado por computador. Este docu- in ways that stretch the documentary genre. The authors mental utiliza el estado del arte de la animación creativa para contar una historia convincente en un estilo que amplía el uncover and describe four audience segments. Unexpect- género documental. Descubrimos y describimos cuatro seg- edly, these four segments bear a strong resemblance to the mentos de audiencia que, sin que nos lo propusiéramos, se four principal modes of media reception proposed recent- parecen mucho a los cuatro modos principales de recepción ly by Michelle (2007), thereby creating a potentially fruit- de medios, planteados recientemente por Michelle (2007). ful link between the framework for consumer experience Esto crea un vínculo potencialmente útil entre el esquema value and media reception studies. sobre el valor experiencial del consumidor y los estudios so- bre recepción de medios. Key words: Consumer value, media reception, audi- ence segments, creative animation, spectator, marketing. Palabras clave: valor del consumidor, recepción de medios, segmentos de audiencia, animación creativa, es- pectador, mercadeo. 1 Edward S. Rogers Sr. Research Chair in Media Management and En- trepreneurship. School of Radio and Television Arts and Ted Rogers School of Management Rogers Communications Centre. Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [email protected] 2 Digital Value Lab. Rogers Communications Centre. Ryerson Univer- Recibido: 01/02/10 sity, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [email protected] Aceptado: 27/04/10 13 - 30 ISSN 0122-8285 Introduction the award-winning short computer-animated documentary Ryan. This film uses state-of- Media organizations, like producers in other ex- the art creative animation to tell a compelling perience industries, face the well-known prob- story in ways that stretch the documentary lem of high uncertainty of demand for their genre. We uncover and describe four audience products (Caves, 2000). Attraction and retention segments. Unexpectedly, these four segments of audiences is a central challenge that media bear a strong resemblance to the four principal firms must face (cf. Aris and Bugin, 2005). To modes of media reception recently proposed by strengthen audience engagement and improve Michelle (2007), creating a potentially fruitful predictability and market control require mak- link between the experiential consumer value ing sense of audience motives and behavior. framework and media reception studies. However, what feedbacks permit producers and purveyors of mediated experience goods to Screen Experiences, Innovation and understand the ways these goods create value Consumer Value in Documentary Film for consumers? Media industries, especially those branches that depend on advertising-sup- Documentaries traditionally are considered to ported business models, have developed highly be a factual, non-fictional genre that seek to re- rationalized feedback mechanisms to provide cord, reveal, preserve, persuade, promote, ana- information about market share or customers’ lyze, question, or express a viewpoint (Renov, exposure to product. These feedbacks, however, 1993), thereby making a pledge to the viewer do not get at the subjective consumption experi- “that what we will see and hear is about some- ence. Professional or amateur critics or consum- thing real and true –and, frequently, important ers themselves usually assess feedback about for us to understand” (Aufderheide, 2007). John the consumption experience; they routinely Grierson coined the term documentary in 1926 share opinions about experiential product qual- in reference to the film Moana, produced by the ity through word-of-mouth. American John Flaherty, which Grierson regard- ed as having a “documentary value” (Kilborn & Market share, levels of exposure and vernacu- Izod, 1997: 12). Documentary subgenres include lar opinions are, of course, far from negligible advocacy, political propaganda and govern- as sources of market intelligence, but they only ment affairs, historical, nature, and ethnograph- take us so far in our attempt to understand ic (Aufderheide, 2007). Hogarth suggests that sources of value creation in experience goods. a global approach to documentaries should The concepts of customer/consumer value and involve a “flexible definition of documentary value creation are central ones in the market- to suit the social, cultural, economic, and tech- ing, management, and organization literatures, nological circumstance in which it now oper- but they are infrequently considered in the con- ates” (2006, p.14), keeping in mind emerging text of screen-based experience goods. In this demand for documentaries that provide “art- paper, we depart from prevailing approaches ful entertainment” (Aufderheide, 2005) and not to audience or reception studies by investigat- just instruction or edification. Much scholarship ing the experiential value that consumption of on documentaries focuses on aesthetic innova- a screen product yields to the spectator. Using tion through critical analysis of documentary Q-methodology and Holbrook’s consumer val- content, characterization and interpretation ue framework (1999), we empirically identify of stylistic features, parsing of a documentary audience segments based on viewers’ subjective film’s claims to authenticity, or grappling with experience of an innovative-filmed product, the perennial question of what are the limits of 14 Consumer Value and Modes of Media Reception: ... Volumen 13 Número 1 l Junio de 2010 the genre, considering the “increasingly blurred boundaries between factual and fictional genre The motion picture industry stands categories” (Kilborne, 2004). This is true of the apart from other screen industries in subgenre of documentary discussed here, ani- its reliance on spectacle and a one-to- mated documentary, which emphasizes an al- ternative means of conveying social or political many business model. Interactivity is messages rather than claiming to document not significant, and advertising is not something in the factual, non-fictional, or literal the principal source of revenue. sense (Hight, 2008a, 2008b; Martins, 2008a). Although documentaries are a strength of the ing-supported broadcasting and the spread of Canadian screen industry, many documentary consumption culture in the United States. Con- producers live a hand-to-mouth existence. In- ceptualization of audiences and construction novation in documentary business practice may of coherent images of audiences are becoming provide the potential to put documentary pro- increasingly complex undertakings as media duction companies on a firmer financial footing. consumption migrates to broadband. Highly In a previous paper (Vladica & Davis, 2009), we mediated, interactive environments are leading described and assessed a model to analyze in- to sharp increases in media consumption,